Why we have a placebo effect - Part II By Peter Blanch continued.... Bruce Hood (Hood 2009) in his book “Supersense: why we believe in the unbelievable” makes a couple of quite pertinent points. He outlines a simple experiment he uses in his presentations where he presents to the audience ‘the pen’ (he admits to stretching the truth … [Read more...]
We Believe Because We Evolved That Way part one
July 19, 2010 By 9 Comments
Why we have a placebo effect - Part I By Peter Blanch For a long time now, I have stood with my feet precariously placed on two icebergs that sometimes slowly drift apart and sometimes drift back together again (obviously increasing and decreasing my sensation of precariousness). The first iceberg is where I started as a clinician, with both … [Read more...]
Paul the Psychic Octopus: A watery lesson in understanding clinical evidence
July 15, 2010 By 2 Comments
So the World Cup justifiably goes to Spain and it seems that Paul, the now world famous psychic octopus, predicted the results. In fact Paul demonstrated a seemingly legendary clairvoyant ability. Wikipedia informs us that he predicted the outcome of all of Germany’s games and the final with unerring accuracy. You may not have realised it … [Read more...]
The Riddle Winner
July 10, 2010 By 2 Comments
Some time ago (Heidi says 'in the dim distance past') we ran a riddle about this photo: There were two prizes - for the correct explanation and for the answer we like the best. Well, surprise surprise, NO ONE got it correct. There were bits that were close. You will see how difficult it is to get it correct when you read the correct … [Read more...]
The Inaugural Body in Mind Riddle Competition
February 18, 2010 By 26 Comments
See if you can solve this riddle. A picture, they say, tells a thousand words. This one doesn't tell that many but if you can work out what it is saying, we will give you are prize.... The hint: We are starting a series of new experiments, each item in this picture contributes to a description of what the experiment is about. There are … [Read more...]
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